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Patients with darker skin who received less accurate readings of their oxygen levels using pulse oximeters — the ubiquitous devices clamped on hospitalized patients’ fingers — also received less supplemental oxygen during ICU stays, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Source: STAT

Minority patient groups may receive less supplemental oxygen in the ICU due to inaccurate readings from pulse oximeters.

Bacterial infections are the leading cause of disease and death worldwide; an ongoing public health problem exacerbated by slow or inaccurate diagnostics. Now NIBIB-funded scientists have engineered an inexpensive, paper-based test that can rapidly identify multiple types of bacteria.

A new type of COVID-19 test is hitting the market, and could change how we detect the virus. MicroGEM, a Virginia-based molecular biology company with a Charlottesville office, is using its new saliva test to track COVID-19. Source: NBC TV12 Richmond, Virginia.

Two recent studies supported by the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Tech program demonstrate how widespread distribution of COVID-19 at-home antigen tests can be used as an effective public health strategy to reduce the spread of the disease. Source: UMass Chan

he difference between a social butterfly and a lone wolf is actually at least eight differences, according to new findings by a team of Duke brain researchers.

Engineering researchers have invented an advanced brain-computer interface with a flexible and moldable backing and penetrating microneedles. Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain’s complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex. The microneedles, which are 10 times thinner than the human hair, protrude from the flexible backing, penetrate the surface of the brain tissue without piercing surface venules, and record signals from nearby nerve cells evenly across a wide area of the cortex.

A small preliminary study from Northwestern Medicine has shown that a blood test may identify risk of stillbirth and placentitis in pregnant individuals who have had COVID-19. The finding builds on another study with similar results and could have implications in how physicians screen for and address high-risk pregnancies.

Scientists have developed a single point-of-care assay that identifies malaria, typhoid—or both simultaneously—in just 15 minutes.

NIBIB grantee Wilbur Lam was quoted in this Washington Post article about the ‘test to treat’ COVID-19 plan. Lam leads the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered POC Tech at Emory University, which has been evaluating COVID-19 tests for RADx®.